Why DIDN’T Catholics Want People Having Access to Scripture?
Historically, Catholic leaders have curiously objected to people having access to the Holy Scriptures. For instance, when the codex book form replaced the scroll, and parchment made from sheep or goat skin replaced papyrus, the Catholic Council of Toulouse, France, 1229, forbade anyone who was not a priest from owning a translation of the Bible or any part of it.
John Wycliffe was one of the first to make the Bible available to the average person. He argued that the Scriptures did little good locked away in Latin that few could understand. He finished the first complete English translation based upon the Vulgate in 1382. Hand-written copies were widely circulated and eagerly read. In 1408, nearly a quarter century after Wycliffe’s death, Catholic leaders outlawed the reading of Wycliffe’s translation. So England had a Bible in the English language, but it was a forbidden one.
It gets worse: The Council of Constance condemned Wycliffe in 1415, ordering his body exhumed and burned, along with his books. Yet even the most energetic opposition could not wipe out this powerful movement to translate the Bible into the languages of the common people.
In 1522, William Tyndale conceived the project of translating the New Testament directly from the Greek, bypassing the Latin Vulgate. To a critic of this plan he boldly declared: “If God spare my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.”
To carry out his noble project, Tyndale had to flee to Germany because of strong opposition from religious authorities in England. He would never return to his home country.
After Tyndale finished his translation, copies were smuggled into England and widely distributed. But, when discovered, Catholic leaders ordered these Bibles gathered up for burning! Tyndale was betrayed in 1535, kidnapped, and imprisoned by papal agents near Brussels. He was tried for heresy and condemned to death. A decade earlier they had burned the translation; now they intended to burn the translator!
Tyndale went boldly to the stake circa October 6, 1536, still defending his belief that the English should have a Bible in their own language. He was strangled at the post before they burned his body. With his last breath he cried out, “LORD open the king of England’s eyes!” His prayer was answered seven decades later with the King James Bible manifesting in 1611, which used about 84% of Tyndale’s words for the New Testament and 76% for the Old Testament (these are conservative estimates).
The KJV was the most popular English version of the Bible for almost 400 years. The New International Version (NIV) has since usurped this position, which you can observe here. (This explains, by the way, why the NIV is the primary version we use on this site).
Tyndale’s life-mission coincided with the Protestant Reformation, which had just begun in 1517 with the publication of Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses in northeast Germany followed by his excommunication by Pope Leo X in early 1521.
The clarion call of the Reformers was sola scriptura, a Latin phrase meaning “(by) Scripture alone.” You see, they were protesting the unbiblical doctrines and practices of the Catholic religion that had accumulated over the centuries and stripped believers of freedom in Christ and the corresponding dunamis power. This explains why these reformers came to be called Protestants, i.e. protest-ants. The God-breathed Scriptures are the LORD’s blueprint for authentic Christianity. In other words, the Bible is the basis for all Christian doctrine & practice and corrections thereof, as plainly stated in Holy Scripture:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Notice clearly that we are to go to the God-breathed Scriptures (2 Peter 1:21) for legitimate Christian teachings and these Scriptures are the basis for proper doctrine and correction in matters of belief or practice (assuming, of course, they’re “rightly divided” based on common sense hermeneutics). Nothing is said about a pope, cardinal, bishop or priest having the power to override clear biblical teachings.
Of course, the Catholic organization never outright denied the authority of Scripture, they just placed extrabiblical traditions and the teachings of Catholic leaders on a level of authority that superseded Holy Scripture. Some quick examples include: the papacy, apostolic succession, papal infallibility, equating Catholic traditions with Scripture, praying to dead saints, praying to Mary, obsession with religious statues to the point of smacking of idolatry, regular confession to priests, infant baptism, celibacy mandated for ministers, Amillennialism, transubstantiation, the absurd granting of indulgences, the immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, the assumption of Mary and mediatrix. You can read more about these unscriptural doctrines/practices here.
This tendency of fallen humanity and the religious spirit explains the biblical rule Paul had for his assemblies:
“Do not go beyond what is written.”
In other words, don’t go beyond what is written in Holy Scripture in regards to Church doctrine and Christian living. The Lord Himself said we need to “continue in his word” so that “the truth will set us free” (John 8:31-32). He also said to the Father, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
Even long after the Reformation, the Catholic organization conveyed the Word of God in Latin at services and so the common person couldn’t even comprehend it. My wife’s father came from a Catholic family and attested to this. He said he never understood a word of what was preached at services. The absurdity of having masses conducted in Latin wasn’t corrected until 1969, obviously due to social pressure since “Protestant” ministers were actually helping the masses with biblical truths. I’m speaking as a humble nonsectarian who simply goes by the scriptural name Christian (Acts 11:26). (If you’re not familiar with sectarianism, go here).
Maybe the Catholic sect has changed in modern times, I don’t know since I don’t attend masses or read Catholic literature (I hope they’ve changed for the sake of their parishioners). But the documented facts plainly show that Catholic leaders have, historically, hated the notion of the common people having access to Holy Scripture — the Word of Truth — or even hearing it at their services.
Don’t these type of religious leaders want people set FREE? Don’t they realize that the Word of God is the “sword of the spirit,” the believer’s most effective weapon in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:17)?
Christ answered such questions in the 1st Century when talking to the legalistic Pharisees and Teachers of the Law:
46Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them…
52“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
Luke 11:46,52
When Church leaders become infected by forms of legalism, they lack the capacity or desire to set people free. On the contrary, they’ll do the very opposite—they’ll load people down with heavy and unnecessary burdens that they’re unwilling to help carry. It’s what counterfeit religionists do.
The other glaring reason Catholic officials didn’t want believers to have access to God’s Word is that they feared their organization’s unbiblical doctrines & practices would be exposed as bogus and there’d be a great reformation which, of course, is what ultimately happened.
A Catholic wrote me claiming that, until the last few hundred years, the majority of believers didn’t have access to the Holy Scriptures and, even if they did, it would’ve done little good since most people were illiterate. (Notice, interestingly, how he plays down the importance of the Word of God in people’s lives).
Actually, the early Church had the Hebraic Scriptures, which pointed to Christ (John 5:39), as well as the verbal Scriptures via the apostles who literally walked with the Messiah for 3.5 years before His teachings were written down in the four Gospels (Paul didn’t walk with Christ during the His earthly ministry, but had a life-changing encounter with the risen Lord, as noted in 1 Corinthians 15:8). Thirty years after Yeshua ascended, Peter cited Paul’s epistles as Scripture and they were circulating amongst the assemblies (2 Peter 3:16). So the early Church did have access to Old and New Covenant Scripture.
As for believers in subsequent decades & centuries, the Marcionite canon from 130-140 AD listed nine of Paul’s New Testament epistles while the Muratorian Canon from circa 170 AD featured all of what became the New Testament except the epistles Hebrews, James, 1 Peter and 2 Peter (the mini-epistles 2 John and 3 John were considered possibilities). This indicates that the essential texts that would ultimately be accepted as New Testament canon were already acknowledged by early believers 100-145 years after Christ’s crucifixion. This was long before what is known as Catholicism originated.
It is true that the public masses were largely illiterate and hardly anyone who was literate had access to the Scriptures until after 1600 because books of the Bible or whole Bibles were all hand-written, but this just shows the responsibility of Church servant-leaders — e.g. pastors & teachers — to feed believers under their care the truths of God’s Word (Ephesians 4:11-13 & 1 Peter 5:1-5). The Bible clearly says that such ministers will be held accountable to what they effectively teach or don’t teach at the Judgment Seat of Christ, not to mention they’ll be judged “more strictly” than other believers because of this responsibility (James 3:1 & 2 Corinthians 5:10).
This article should not be viewed as “anti-Catholic,” it’s simply pro-history, pro-truth and pro-Lord Jesus Christ. God isn’t concerned about the sectarian tag believers go by — whatever that might be or might not be — but rather what’s going on in the individual’s heart; specifically, their faith (belief), as well as their corresponding fruit and actions. Speaking of which, notice this general biblical prayer for believers by the apostle Paul:
9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
Colossians 1:9-10
How exactly can believers be “filled with the knowledge of His will” and “grow in the knowledge of God” if Christian leaders refuse to teach or preach God’s Word in the vernacular of the people? How can believers be filled with such knowledge and grow in it if they’re forbidden to even possess it or read it (or have it read to them, if they’re illiterate)?
This illustrates the gross error of Catholic leaders denying believers access to the Word of Truth over the centuries of Church history. And by ‘Church‘ I’m referring to “the holy nation” of genuine believers (1 Peter 2:9) who are spiritually-regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), regardless of the individual’s preferred sectarian label.
Related Topics:
Does Matthew 16:18-19 Support the Idea of a Pope?
Who Wrote the New Testament Books? Who Authorized them as Scripture Canon?
Legalism — Understanding its Many Forms
Religion and Christianity — What’s the Difference?
BIBLE — You Own One at a Huge Price!
What is KJV ONLY? What’s Wrong with It?
BEREAN SPIRIT — What Is It? How Do You Cultivate It?
What Makes a Believer a “LEGITIMATE CHRISTIAN”?
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